Experiment A1
by Merdina
Summary: A new experiment is loose, but she's not one of Jumba's. It's up to Reuben to catch her, but will he be a match for the experiment that is more powerful than all his cousins?
1. Prologue

Prologue

12:00, Midnight. The communicator bleeped angrily in Gantu's ship. Only experiment 625, or Reuben, heard it. He turned over sleepily and clambering out of his bunk. He flipped it open and answered grumpily.

"Yeah, what'dya want?"

"Do not talk to me like that, experiment, or I will have to obliterate you!" The squeaky, annoying voice of Dr. Jaques von Hämsterviel blared down the speakers. Reuben groaned.

"Hämsterviel? C'mon, it's midnight! Gantu's not gonna be awake, and he's not gonna work for you any more. He's been in prison too many times."

Reuben didn't actually know if Gantu would reject Hämsterviel's offer, but he had come too close to losing his best friend before to do it again. Hämsterviel didn't show any signs of relenting though.

"Gantu would be interested in my generous offer... A new experiment is on the loose." Reuben laughed.

"Who do you think you're kidding, gerbil? Jumba isn't making experiments any more. He has a family now. There won't be any more. So why don't you just go run in your wheel and leave me alone?"

"One, it is not Jookiba's experiment. Two, I'll run in my wheel when I'm damn well ready, and three, I'm not gerbil-like, I'm..."

Reuben flicked off the communicator and went back to bed.

The next day, when Gantu was out the communicator beeped. Reuben opened it and glared at the image of Hämsterviel on the screen. He was about to close it again when Hämsterviel started to talk so urgently that he listened curiously.

"I don't need Gantu to ruin this mission for me, experiment. You could do it for me."

"And exactly why would I want to do that?"

"I'd make it worth your while."

Reuben blinked. He'd never been on the recieving end of a bribe before. Hämsterviel saw the hesitant look in his eyes and grinned. He continued.

"Experiment A1 is the ultimate fighting machine. She has just been tested out in the labs, and she did a little too well."

"What do you mean?"  
"She blasted a hole through the blast-proof walls and escaped. By some freakish co-incidence she turned up on the same island that all of her creator's rival's experiments turned up on."

"So she's here? And she could wreak havoc on anyone's homes?"

"Not just anyone's. A1 was programmed to kill anything that tried to obstruct her, but it seems that her creator wanted to get his revenge on his rivals to stop all competition. She is programmed to destroy all of his rivals should she come across them."

"So this experiment could be headed to Jumba Jookiba's house right now?"

"Yes. I can hardly wait..."

"Send me the details. Now".

Reuben closed the communicator violently, shaking at the thought of what could happen. Jumba, Jeeba, Ruby and Keltzam were in very real danger. If he didn't do something, his creator, and the only person he had ever loved could die.

The information scrolled down the screen and distracted Reuben from his meditative state. It included A1's creator, her powers and a photo of her. She was a beautiful creature, but in a deadly way. She looked like a panther, but she was about the size of a pit bull terrier. She had black fur, red eyes and a red stripe down her back. She was baring pointed teeth at the camera in a smirk. The last recorded location of her was close to the spaceship. Gantu walked in, and Reuben crumpled up the paper, stuffing it into his mouth to hide it.

"Hi, 625. Do you wanna watch a film? I just got it from the store."

"Erm... sorry, Gantu, I gotta go." Reuben said, uncomfortably.

"Where?"

"Oh, nowhere in particular. Just out." He muttered, slipping out of the door and dissapearing into the distance.

**Please can you review this story for each chapter that you read, because I want to see what people think as the story progresses rather than just at the end.**


	2. Chapter 1

Strike One

12:00, midday. Footsteps. Mumbling in the distance. Sniff the air… sugar-based syrup and frozen hydrogen and oxygen particles. Humans. Alien. She took in all these facts in a second and her hyper-intelligent brain analysed them instantly. Taking pre-measured steps so as not to cause any noise, Experiment A1 edged towards the shaved ice stand inch by inch. The alien was another genetic experiment, like her. But he was not like her, he wasn't one of her brothers and sisters from the lab on Heltrix 4. He was the spawn of a rival, and it was her job to eliminate him on her master's quest to domination.

What was the best angle to reach him from? She crouched behind the bush, watching silently, red pupils darting around wildly. Then she noticed the obvious. Humans were walking up to the stand and purchasing the frozen confectionary from him. What a pathetic waste of power, she thought. Reduced to serving these weaker creatures. Then she smelt another alien and turned. This one strolled up and bought some food too. Female. Pink. Tentacle-like limbs on head. How many other experiments were there on this planet? She had two to eliminate now.

She stood up on her hind legs and walked up to the chatting experiments. Tantalog, her languages programme told her, was the language they were using. She reached the stand.

"Cousin?" asked the blue male, whilst the pink female looked at her inquisitively. She grinned, displaying her deadly sharp teeth.

"No."

"What are you?"

"Your worst nightmare," she snarled, before leaping forward like a pouncing cat and ripping his throat out and disappearing. The female screamed. She had only just had time to process what had happened, because it had all been too fast. A1 chuckled to herself as she bounded off into the distance. Today the male. Tomorrow the female. Then, the world…

**Please review! I know the ending is a bit cliché, so I'm sorry about that! Next chapter coming soon.**


	3. Chapter 2

Saving Slushy

12:12, night. Reuben was running as fast as his stumpy legs would allow him, and yet he didn't seem to be getting anywhere. He needed to warn Jumba. According to the file that Hämsterviel sent him, A1 had been on the planet since around midday, and who knows what she had done in that time. Surprisingly, lights were still on in the windows of Jumba's house, one in the lounge and one in the lab. Reuben hammered on the door, which was answered by Pleakley.

"Pleakley, I need to talk to Jumba," he gasped breathlessly.

"Jumba's in his lab. You can't go down there unless it's a real emergency. He's trying to fix one of his little monsters."

"Fix?"

"Something attacked Slushy, and he barely made it. Jumba's operating on him now."

Reuben's heart sank. So A1 had already left an imprint on one of the experiments.

"Do you know what attacked him?"

"No. Angel was there, but she won't say anything. I'll get it out of her, though," Pleakley said in disgust.

Reuben was off down to the lab like a plasma blast before Pleakley could argue. He ripped open the door, taking Jumba by surprise. Jumba moved in front of the table, blocking it from view.

"625! What do you want? I am in middle of delicate operation!"

"I know what attacked Slushy. How is he?"

Jumba looked down at his feet sadly.

"523 is in bad way. Something tore open his throat. He has lightning reflexes and ability to blast protective wall of ice… Whatever did this is not from Earth."

"She isn't."

"She?"

"Experiment A1 from Heltrix 4. She's stranded here, and dangerous. And if she sees you, she'll kill you on sight."

Jumba blinked.

"What? Jumba is not having… _that_ many enemies."

"One of your rivals created her to not only allow him to be supreme ruler, but to kill off all his rivals and their experiments."

Jumba moved defensively away from Reuben. Reuben caught a glimpse of Slushy and realised how much trouble they were in. The experiment lay on the table, limp as a rag doll. His entire throat cavity was laid open, savaged tissue and muscle sticking up in bloody strands. His chest moved slowly up and down, shuddering. Jumba had pushed a pipe down the windpipe to provide him with air whilst he repaired the flesh, which was covered in frosty crystals. Jumba coughed, making Reuben jump.

"The only reason 523 survived is his own body temperature. Whilst body can stay warm whilst blood vessels are intact, when they are broken his body freezes the blood to prevent blood loss. It seems this A1 was so fast he lost more blood than he would usually be doing."

Jumba turned back to the table to continue the operation, and Reuben slipped out the door again to sit upstairs and wait for him. As he wandered into the lounge, he heard Angel and Pleakley arguing.

"Come on you little monster! Tell me what tried to kill Slushy!"

"I…I don't…know," she sobbed, stumbling over her English even more than usual, "It all…too fast…"

Reuben sighed. There were still a few bitter feelings over Angel from his rejection, but that didn't stop him feeling sorry for her.

"Hey, c'mon, Pleakley, back off! Angel's witnessed one of her cousins have his throat ripped out, she doesn't need you yelling at her too!"

Angel ran over to Reuben and buried her head in his chest, sobbing. He patted her on the back awkwardly whilst Pleakley glared at him and stormed out of the room. Angel looked up with tearstained eyes, and went back to talking in Tantalog.

"Reuben, I'm so scared," she said shakily, "I saw the attacker. She was black, with red eyes and…and claws and pointy teeth and…"

"I know. Her name is Experiment A1. She's escaped from the labs and her programming means she will destroy rival experiments and their creators."

"So Jumba could…"

"Yeah."

Angel bit her lip.

"Reuben. I'm next."

"What do you mean?"

"She saw me with Slushy, so she knows me," she mumbled into his chest, "So she's going to kill me next." Her voice came out as a terrified whisper, before breaking completely.

"No on my watch. I'm gonna catch A1 and stop her from attacking anyone else."

Reuben left the room with Angel looking at him admiringly.

Three hours later, Jumba came out of the lab, not knowing whether to grin or scowl.

"I have repaired 523's throat. He will be fine in a few days. Now, 625, what about this experiment that is trying to kill me?"

Reuben cleared his throat and began. When he had told Jumba everything twice over, the reality of what he was dealing with finally sank in.

Experiment A1 was the ultimate creator of death. She had razor-sharp claws that could rip through 12 inches of solid iron and jaws embedded with deadly teeth that could crush a rock in seconds. Her eyes could see in the dark and in x-ray, and could shoot a deadly, plasma-like blast should she need to. With six arms in all, but four retractable and poisonous spines that could retract down her tail and back, she could hang from the ceiling, and her reflexes were so fast that you had to play them back in slow-motion to even see a blur. She could hear and smell anything within a mile radius and think faster than… well, there wasn't a unit of time fast enough to measure her brain-speed in. She had, like Reuben, an advanced languages programme. And she was stronger even than Stitch, capable of lifting items 5000 times her own weight.

"Is that all," muttered Jumba, full of creative rivalry over the experiment that outstripped his life's work put together. Reuben gulped. What had he got himself into? They had saved Slushy, and he had promised to protect Angel. But at the end of the day, who was going to protect him?

**I know the last chapters were really short, but they will get longer. Please review!**


	4. Chapter 3

Strike Two

5:06, PM. She had scanned the whole island now, broken down everything into its basic elements, found direct heat sources, and located the main power supply. And yet she was still confused. Why were there so many experiments here? They seemed to have infested the island like plague. She could take them all down one by one, but if they all grouped together then she wouldn't have a chance. And who should she pick off first? Her info-pod computer that was strapped to her belt showed that they had all been created by the same scientist, a Quelta Quanian by the name of Jumba Jookiba. Was he creating more of them? Either way, he must be here somewhere, as she had already seen 473 experiments belonging to him. So she must destroy him, and then his spawn as well.

At the moment she was sitting by the ruin of a small wooden hut near a volcano. It seemed that some sort of explosion had destroyed the hut, so she had collected together some of the broken wood and made a shelter to sleep in. Not that she needed to sleep. She could go for days on end without sleeping, although she had been rested briefly each night for a few hours to recharge back on Heltrix 4. She grinned to think of Heltrix, and of her brothers and sisters. Of course, she felt no attachment to them, it was beyond her programming to feel love for anything, but instead she thought smugly about how she had outstripped all of them. She thought of her creator proudly. She had been programmed to feel the utmost respect for him, and that feeling was the closest to love that she would ever be allowed to feel. She could only feel hatred.

And therefore, she felt proud to use her powers to eliminate each and every threat to her master. She was a bit peckish, having not eaten anything in at least four days, back in the lab. She decided to go into the town, find some food, and kill the next thing she saw, just for fun. Maybe she would track down Jookiba as well- get her mission over and done with before having some fun with his experiments. She sharpened her claws on a nearby rock, scouring deep grooves into its previously smooth surface.

She ran off down to the beach and selected a tourist to pick off. Then she blinked, and her red eyes changed colour, becoming blue with huge, sparkling pupils. She walked on four legs over to a woman and circled her ankles, purring contentedly. The woman smiled and picked her up, looking into her eyes. A big mistake. She was instantly hypnotised, and followed the 'cat' into the cover of some trees. A1 dropped her gaze, and started to retract extra arms, the poisonous spines shooting from her tail. The woman started to scream, but the poison stopped that. All her muscles relaxed and she dropped to the floor, twitching. The last thing she saw was a huge, murderous mouth full of dripping pointed teeth. Laughing. Then the mouth closed in and there was nothing but silence and blackness. As the tourist stared wildly around with dying eyes, A1 slipped away, unnoticed. A child's scream told her that someone had just found her latest victim.

Exhilarated from the kill and the taste of blood, A1 started to track her creator's rival. Jumba Jookiba couldn't be that hard to find on this island, it was so tiny. An idea struck her. If the pathetic ice-vendor experiment had thought she was his 'cousin' perhaps another experiment would make the same mistake. They obviously had some idea of family that her creator had specifically forbidden. Whilst she called her fellow experiments brother and sister, they meant nothing to her. These experiments saw each other as cousins, and seemed to feel that forbidden feeling for each other as well. A1 had often wondered what love felt like. But she would never know, and she wasn't programmed to care either.

She sniffed the air and smelt a male experiment, and a young female human. She could hear them talking now, the human in English and the experiment in a crude mixture of Tantalog and English. She retracted the spines and one set of arms, but kept one set of extra arms to make sure she looked like an experiment. She needed to look as innocent as possible, she thought with a chuckle. The experiment and his young friend approached.

"Do you think I'll ever get Myrtle to like me, Stitch? She's being so mean and I… Stitch? What is it?"

The male experiment by the name of Stitch was looking directly at her. She grinned and waved, trying to look friendly. They walked over.

"Cousin?" asked Stitch, in English.

"Yes! I am Jumba Jookiba's latest experiment, and therefore your cousin. Could you direct me to his house?"

Stitch nodded, but the girl wasn't convinced.

"If you're Jumba's experiment, why don't you know where he lives? He would have created you in his basement lab!"

A1 scowled.

"My only flaw is that I don't have a good sense of direction, puny Earth girl! I don't have to answer myself to you!"

The girl's mouth hung open and A1 cursed herself for losing her cool so quickly. Stitch was growling, so she coughed sheepishly.

"Erm… Sorry about that… my programming makes me insult everyone."

"Heckler already does that."

"Well, he took his favourite experiment traits and put them together to form me," she lied, her light-speed brain supplying the answers as soon as the questions were asked.

"So can you show me back to his home please?"

The girl sighed.

"I suppose so. C'mon, Stitch."

"Why thank you. What's your name, anyway?"

"Lilo."

"Lilo and Stitch… catchy. Well, let's go."

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Experiment A1."

Before they could ask any more questions, A1 steered them down the path and they set off. When Lilo gave her the directions before setting off to go on her 'rounds', A1 grinned smugly. It was just too easy.

**Again, the chapters will get longer, because I know this one isn't much longer than the last one. Please review! **


	5. Chapter 4

Meet the Jookibas

9:05 AM. Having stayed up all night with Reuben, talking about A1, the last thing Jumba wanted was to be woken up by a screaming child at nine in the morning. And yet, being the father of two six-year-old twins, this was somewhat of an occupational hazard, and so he had to deal with it. Ruby, his daughter, had been tricked by her brother to thinking that there was a ghost in the toy cupboard, and he had leapt out on her when she had gone to get her teddies for breakfast. She sat under the duvet of the bed, cuddled up to her mother whilst Jumba desperately tried to go and play with her brother. In the end, he decided to go and get some breakfast, and went downstairs, where his son, Keltzam, was playing with a toy spaceship.

Gulping coffee and shovelling burnt toast into his mouth, Jumba reflected on what he stood to lose if this A1 actually attacked his house, or any more of his experiments. He would lose all of his possessions, his wife, his children, and his genetic children. He could even lose his own life, but compared to losing everything he held close, that seemed like a minor outcome. 625 seemed determined to stop her, which seemed oddly courageous for him- a lazy, cowardly failure of an experiment. Jumba stopped himself. All his experiments had been failures in one way or another. 625 had amazing powers- he was just unwilling to use them. Whether or not he wanted to use them now was his decision. He couldn't let past bitterness stand in the way of their friendship now. He was distracted by a movement in the corner of his eye, and whirled around to look out of the window. His house, built by his experiments as a wedding gift to his wife, was in the middle of the wooded area near Lilo's home. Movements in the trees were common, but he wasn't taking any chances now. He couldn't see anything. Squinting, he moved closer to the glass and peered closely at a bush.

A knock at the door made him leap a foot in the air in shock. Hearts pounding, Jumba opened the door to let in Pleakley, who seemed a little unnerved.

"Hi, Jumba…"

"Hello," answered Jumba, a little gruffly.

"Jumba, there was something in a bush outside… I tried to get a look at it, but it ran away."

"Eh. Is probably nothing."

"All the same, I felt uneasy about it. It felt as though I was being watched…"

"You worry too much."

"You're really not worried? Not worried about Experiment A1? Not worried about the terrifying evil force that will rain down death and terror upon you and your family if it so much as senses your presence?"

"Nope. Hadn't even been thinking about it."

Pleakley shrugged and went into the other room, leaving Jumba to think about it alone. Well. He thought he was alone.

A1 had been sitting uncomfortably in a bush when she heard footsteps clattering up the pathway. She had been sitting and watching the house all night. Of course, she could have just charged in and killed them all like the tourist, but if Jookiba was creating a volatile experiment then the whole place could blow up. Instead she had been monitoring his every move. She had discovered that his laboratory was stationed below ground, and encased in 3ft walls of steel (she had stripped the elements down with her x-ray vision), and that above it was a perfectly normal house, except that it contained very advanced technology for this planet. There were four in the family, although she had only seen Jumba in person, looking through a window before the Plorgian had come up the path and nearly spotted her. How she had made such a basic error was unknown to her, but she wasn't going to let her guard down again.

As the Plorgian made his way up the path towards the door, A1 had snuck behind him silently, slipping through the gap as Jumba had closed it. How he hadn't seen her was a mystery, but he had turned around whilst closing it to talk to his friend. Pah, she thought, friend. Only fools made friends, that was what her creator had taught her at least. By trusting no-one, no-one could betray her. She now sat atop a wall-mounted cupboard, watching her mark and grinning. She had been on this planet for less than 24 hours and she had practically completed stage one of her mission to kill all of her creator's rivals. There were five rivals, and five stages. If she killed Jookiba, his experiments would be easier to kill than a Florgrax without its armour. However, before she was to strike, she needed to check out the rest of the house first. Kill his family, then him, then his spawn. That was the plan.

She scuttled out of the room on the ceiling and then crawled up the walls and stairs. She paused on the landing, looking at all of the different doors, sniffing deeply. She turned to the left, through a door into what seemed to be a nursery or a play room of some kind. There were two children inside, squabbling over a toy dinosaur. One was female, one was male. The girl was wearing a necklace that spelt a word out in multicoloured beads. The word was RUBY. A1 supposed that this was her name. The boy was wearing a blue top with a shark on it. He had no name tag, but she picked up his name from the argument that he was having with his sister.

"Ruby, it's my dinosaur… give me it…" he gasped, between tugs.

"No… Keltzam… Mummy said I could…play too…" she replied, pulling at the toy for all she was worth. Suddenly, the toy broke, and with a popping noise the plastic head ripped from its socket, leaving Keltzam holding the body. He looked down at it in horror, and leapt at his sister. They wrestled furiously on the floor, the girl screaming, the boy yelling.

Should she attack now? They couldn't be more than six Earth years old; they would be easy to pick off. But she was cut short by the door opening and voice shouting at the children. There was Quelta Quanian/Cupidian hybrid standing in the doorway, yelling at the kids to stop fighting. Their mother. She ran over, separating the two and stopping Keltzam from ripping out a chunk of Ruby's purple hair. She lifted the girl from the floor and walked out of the room to clean up a graze on her knee. The boy sat on the floor, angrily trying to piece together his broken toy. She slowly made her way down the floor and started to sneak up on him, deciding to simply go for the throat. He wouldn't have time to scream. She reached him, standing behind him. She was only just taller than him, and he was sitting on the floor. She ran a grey tongue along her lips, anticipating the salty flow of blood that was about to follow. She leant in, opening her mouth wide, about to bite when…

A high-pitched scream erupted from the doorway, making the boy leap up and distracted A1. She whipped around to see the mother standing there. The boy ran away, yelling.

Jumba was flicking through channel after channel of morning news reports that all said the same thing.

"…And now, back to the mysterious case of the murdered tourist. Valerie Holmes, a forty-two year old from Scotland was found dead near a beach in Hawaii yesterday afternoon. There were large bite marks on her neck, and puncture wounds on her leg. Experts are baffled…"

"DAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDYYYY!!!!!!!"

The sound of his son screaming distracted him from the report, and he leapt up from the couch, sprinting up the stairs. The sight before him was one that he would never forget.

Ruby and Keltzam cowered behind the doorway to their play room, and as he ran inside, Jeeba was standing in front of a strange, black alien. Of course, it could only be A1; she matched the description that 625 had given him right down to the markings around her eyes. A1 was grinning nastily at her, and Jeeba stood, all four arms flexing and shaking angrily. A1 spoke in a voice that was laced with laughter.

"You cannot possibly expect to fight me, hybrid. I will rip you limb from limb, and then your pathetic children as well."

Jeeba's eyes flashed dangerously.

"If you even think about touching my children I will rip you limb from limb, experiment," she spat, her voice low and deadly. Jumba had never heard this voice before; it was pure fury coming out of her mouth. A1 simply snorted.

"You'll be so lucky! C'mon then, _Mrs Jookiba_, if you think you've got a chance then just try it," she laughed mockingly. Jeeba didn't move, rooted to the spot with fury. A1 didn't seem to have noticed Jumba; she was intent on taunting the female in front of her. When Jeeba didn't respond, she took a few steps towards the door that concealed the terrified children. Claws slid from her paws with the deadly _shiiick_ of a knife running through a sharpener.

"Not gonna play, then? Well maybe I'll disembowel one of your brats, and we'll see where we get from there, eh?"

With a terrifying yell, Jeeba leapt at the experiment, knocking her to the floor. A1 was so surprised that her reflexes abandoned her. She hadn't been expecting the female to actually fight back. Jeeba curled her fingers into a fist and punched the experiment in the face. Jumba was about to rip her off her, as mere punching would do nothing to harm A1, when she emitted a scream of pain. The experiment kicked Jeeba off and flipped onto her feet again, and Jumba grinned. His wife had sunk the diamond on her engagement ring into A1's eye. Even a super-experiment such as this couldn't ignore something like that. Green blood oozed out, eating a hole through the floor upon contact. Jumba scowled. Acid blood? How cliché. A1's creator had watched too many alien movies. A1 looked up at him in time to see a huge fist slicing through the air. It caught her in the stomach, throwing her across the room. She glared at him, and a red blast shot out of her right eye. She gasped in pain, and Jumba smirked. The blast had missed, and shot through the doorway, creating the sound of smashing china in the other room. But nothing came out of her left eye, the one Jeeba wounded, and evidently the concentrated heat had rebounded inside her head. A milky layer covered her left eye- it had gone blind.

"You may have won this round, Jookiba, but I'll be back. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this week… BUT SOON!"

And with that, an embarrassed, bleeding, partially blinded A1 leapt out of the window and melted into the trees. Pleakley meandered into the room.

"Hey, guys, I heard shouting. What did I miss?"


	6. Chapter 5

Strike One To Reuben

11:00 AM. Huddled angrily in her hurriedly made shelter, A1 nursed her eye miserably. Being half-blinded was not how her previous attack was meant to go. But Jookiba's wife had sunk a diamond into it- the only substance hard enough to penetrate the toughened skin of her organs. Her flesh was less resistant, but it healed faster. Unable to use the heat rays on this eye, and unable to see anything on her left side, she felt as though her mission was in jeopardy. She could only hope that the skin would grow back on her eyeball, and that the lens wasn't too damaged. The Jookiba family was going to be harder to defeat than she thought.

She decided that she would go into hiding. Somewhere that she wouldn't be found, so that she could formulate a better plan. She decided to go to the waterfall and stay in the cave behind it. Some of the experiments she had seen couldn't survive in water, so she would be free of interruptions. Keeping close to the trees so as not to be noticed, she set off.

Lilo and Stitch were in disgrace. Nobody had shouted, nobody had blamed them, and yet, nobody seemed to want to talk to them about A1.

"But it was our fault, Stitch," Lilo agonised for the thousandth time that day, "We directed her straight to Jumba's house!"

"Naga. Tee lo, nahali."

"I know she tricked us, Stitch, but we should have known she wasn't one of Jumba's experiments. After what happened with 627, Jumba promised to tell us if he was gonna create any more cousins. She just outsmarted us. I'm surprised she got past you, though. You can think faster than a super-computer, right?"

"Saka. Colla meela walla preesta," Stitch muttered darkly.

"_Stitch!_"

"Sorry…"

They were determined to set things right, and this meant capturing her and defeating her. However, nobody would hear of it.

"A1 isn't the same as anything you've faced before, Lilo. I'm not letting you go after her. It's far too dangerous, Mum and Dad would kill me if they thought I'd let you go into such danger."

"Listen to your sister, Lilo. This isn't one of Jumba's little monsters; we don't know anything about it. It's far too dangerous. Why don't you stay here and help me tidy up. Where're you going? Jumba won't say yes either, you know!!!"

"Look, sweetheart, I've not been here long enough to see how good you are at catching experiments, and I'm sure you're fabulous at it. But the fact remains that Slushy was nearly killed by this experiment- it's far too dangerous. I'm sure Uncle Jumba agrees with me… isn't that right, honey?"

"Huh? Oh, no. Little girl and 626 are not to be going after A1. It is being far too dangerous. Yes, yes, 625 is going after her, but is his choice, not mine to be making. If he is wanting to be getting killed is not my business."

The two left Jumba's house angrily. They were perfectly happy to let Reuben go after a dangerous experiment, but they had to sit behind and play like good kids. Then Lilo had an idea.

"Reuben! Why don't we just go along with him? He'd probably be glad to have company, right? And he'd protect us from A1."

"Meega protect us!"

"Well, yeah, probably better than Reuben, but Nani won't think like that, will she?"

So they ran off towards Gantu's ship. When they were out of earshot, A1 stepped out of the trees, smirking at the knowledge that someone was after her, and that this ridiculous excuse for an experiment and his pudgy Earthling friend intended to help in her 'defeat'. She ran after them, deciding to find out who this _Reuben_ was, and see if he was as powerful as she doubted him to be. Whoever they threw at her, she would defeat. Well, that was the way she had used to think. Having been beaten by Jeeba Jookiba, least dangerous looking person under the sun, she was learning not to underestimate her enemies. Whether Jeeba had won by a fluke or not, she had still won.

Arriving at the spaceship, A1 quickly discovered a back entrance and forced her way in. Sneaking along, she pressed her small, but powerful ear to the door and listened.

"NO! No, I won't let you come along. It's…"

"Far too dangerous," chanted Lilo and Stitch in a single, bored voice.

"Exactly. I don't care what you say, I'm going after A1 alone, and that is that," he said firmly, before adding, "Aw, c'mon, cuz, do you honestly think that puppy eyes'll work on me? I don't wanna hurt your feelings or anything, you're cute, but I'm just not that kinda guy. OW!"

A1 smirked again. This guy had a Brooklyn accent, and sounded small. He seemed to have a sarcastic sense of humour. And Stitch, the blue one that he called his 'cuz' had evidently just hit him. That, to her, was a sense of humour she enjoyed a lot more. The little fat girl continued.

"Reuben, why are you going after her anyway? You don't go catching experiments, you're too…" She tailed off.

"Too what?"

"Too… erm… well…"

"Lazy. Cowardly. Fat." This came from the blue one, evidently sore about the homosexual jibe.

"_Fat?"_

"No! Not _fat_, just… chubby." The girl said quickly.

There was a small chuckle.

"Where's the kettle, Lilo? Cause you're the pot!"

"And you're pot-bellied!" Retorted the girl, rather feebly.

A1 sighed and was about to pull away when another voice entered the room. This one was very deep, which suggested that he was very big.

"Far be it from me to interrupt all these pot-based insults, but Lilo, Stitch, you're not going."

"Just because you were the last to know about the experiment, Gantu…"

"Leave it." Cut in Reuben. A1 barely had time to hide on the ceiling before the disgruntled couple stormed from the room, a huge shark-like alien chasing after them. This must be Gantu. Slipping through just in time as the automatic door slid shut; A1 hung from the ceiling and looked at Reuben. She grinned smugly, almost laughing at the thought of him defeating her.

His experiment number was 625, and he was the same height as her, give or take a few centimetres. He had short, stumpy legs, and was, as the girl had said, rather chubby. Overlapping his bottom lip were two flat white teeth. He had thick, sunny yellow fur, and large black eyes, with a tuft of fluffy fur on top of his head. His ears flopped down at the sides of his head, and an x-ray scan showed retractable spines and two extra arms. In fact, she thought, he seemed fairly cute and cuddly, although those descriptions meant nothing to her.

He got up from his chair and pottered off into the kitchen. Following overhead, she watched as he sliced meat and cheese, stuffing it in between two slices of bread. He shoved it into his mouth, making strange 'mmm' noises as he ate it. She wondered what the noises meant, and supposed they were a sign that he was enjoying his food. She had always eaten the same brown pellets on Heltrix, which supplied her with all the nutrients that she required. She had never eaten anything that she had actually enjoyed before. Curious, she stole some bread and meat whilst his back was turned, slicing it up with her claws on the ceiling and taking a large bite. It was such a wonderful taste, totally unlike the bland nutrition pellets of Heltrix 4. Closing her eyes, she took another bite, but was interrupted by a voice. 625 had sensed something.

"Hey! There was more bread than this… And where'd the ham go?" He muttered, confused. A1 dropped from the ceiling into the doorway, blocking off his escape route. He whipped round at once. She placed the last of her sandwich into her mouth, smacking her lips ostentatiously.

"Mmm. You know, this ain't half bad. You invent these 625? Or should that be Reuben?"

Reuben growled, and took in the creature in the doorway. Of course, he already knew who she was.

Her name was A1, and she looked to be the same height as him, maybe slightly shorter. She had powerful legs and six arms, although she kept retracting four of them, like flexing her muscles, he guessed. She was lean and muscular, and had her lips pulled back in a sneer that displayed deadly, dripping teeth. She had wiry, midnight black fur and large, red eyes that looked like arrowheads pointing inwards, with a rosette of spiky black fur in between her neat, pointed ears. She had retractable poison barbs on her cat-like tail, and she set these out now as she grinned at him dangerously. She looked deadly and terrifying, although he couldn't help but think that she was beautiful as well. Then she spoke again, and he shook the thought out of his head. She was evil, not beautiful.

"Are you gonna stand there gawking or are you gonna talk to me? I thought you were going to destroy me or whatever. I heard the girl say something about turning me good. Well, you can't, so don't bother trying."

"I saw what you did to Slushy. I don't want you doing that to any more of my cousins, you hear me? Especially not Angel. She's terrified out of her wits now."

"Hmmm… Slushy. That would be 523, that little icy one, right? Ha, so Angel would be the pink one with the tentacles on her head. Well, you won't appeal to my better nature, 625, 'cause I don't have one. Angel had better be scared. And so should you, if you're as intelligent as you're supposed to be."

Reuben glared at her, and she smirked back.

"I'm going to have to destroy you, 625."

"Reuben."

"Whatever. You tell _Angel_ that A1 is waiting for her, 625."

"Reuben. And why are you waiting? If you're so powerful, why don't you just go for her now? Or are you waiting for the first injury to heal before trying for a second?"

"Oh, that's funny. You're a funny guy, 625. But I can't help but wonder what would have happened if Jeeba hadn't miraculously injured me. And I think I'd have won, and poor, pretty Jeeba would have died, along with her fat husband and those pathetic brats they call kids."

Reuben's voice lowered to a growl.

"Don't call the kids pathetic. Don't call Jumba fat. And whatever you do, do _not_ joke about Jeeba Bessotria."

"Why, 625, I believe her name is Jeeba Jookiba."

"_Reuben._ And it was Bessotria before she married Jumba. Back when I…"

"Back when you what?"

"When I was in love with her."

She sniggered.

"Love? Awww, bless. Poor little 625's sore because his love's gone forever. And when I get my revenge she really will be."

"I SAID MY NAME IS REUBEN!" he hollered, grabbing a hot pan from the stove and smashing it onto her head. There was a sizzling sound, but she didn't scream. But she did back away slightly, and grinned, almost apologetically at him, a look in her eyes that almost suggested respect, or admiration for his determination.

"Why do you hate the name 625?"

"Because _that_ name is from when I was nothing more than a number. When I had no control over my life. Well, now I do, and believe me, A1, I'm not gonna waste it. I'm not gonna take any crap from you, and I want to go after you because I feel sorry for you."

A1 hissed, seething.

"_Nobody_ feels sorry for me, 625! People who feel sorry for me end up feeling a whole lot sorrier," she growled. And then, "Why do you feel sorry for me, number boy?"

"Because you're still a number. And you're so intent on killing. Don't you stop to think? Can you stop to think? The people you're killing, Slushy, he's an experiment like you."

"They mean nothing to me. They're insignificant in comparison to the mission."

"And what happens after the mission? What happens when you're insignificant to your master or creator? How does it feel to know that nobody really cares about you, that you were created to serve, not to live, not to love or be loved? How does that make you feel?"

A1 gulped, and thought about it. And yet, her brain couldn't supply an answer that made sense. She was feeling a totally new emotion. She realised that 625 was shaking his head, seemingly half out of amusement, due to the small, twisted smile on his lips, and half out of pure pity. Swallowing this odd new feeling in exchange for the customary rage, A1 stuttered a furious, defeated reply.

"I… well… You won't be smirking soon, _Reuben_… people care… my master cares… I'll kill you while you sleep…"

And she slipped out of the door, shaking angrily.

Reuben turned around and started to make another sandwich, muttering to himself as he did so.

"Ding Ding! Strike one to Reuben. A1 leaves with nothing except a void above her heart."

A small thought popped into his head.

'Reuben leaves feeling sorry for his mortal enemy. She's alone in the world. Like he used to be.'

And with that, he swallowed this odd new feeling in exchange for the customary baloney sub.

**So, Reuben has met his nemesis. Please Review, Chapter 6 coming soon.**


	7. Chapter 6

Just A Number

"Good Evening. The time is 10:00 O' Clock. I'm Jessica Freeman."

"And I'm John Webb."

"Welcome to News at Ten. Up first, reports have been flooding in of mass-murders all over the island of Hawaii. Eighteen people have been found dead, all following in the fashion of the Valerie Holmes murder mystery."

"All of the victims have the same bite marks on their necks, and experts cannot match these to any animal. But strangest of all is the puncture wounds on the victim's legs, showing an injection of an unknown poison."

"Our reporter, Cassie Wright is on the scene. The following images may shock and disturb."

As soon as the presenter said those magic words, everyone leaned in for a closer look at their screens. All except a certain yellow experiment.

Reuben flicked off the TV and went to bed, pulling the covers right over his head and curling up. He screwed up his eyes in horror. A1 had gone on a killing spree, and he had started it. Evidently she was trying to ignore the thoughts that he had put into her head. He was trying to ignore the ones she put into his as well. Thoughts of Jumba, Jeeba and the kids dying. Thoughts of Angel being hunted down. Another one came into his head as well.

'I'll kill you while you sleep'.

That was the last thing she had said to him. Would she really do that? Of course she would, he told himself, she's killed 19 people and severely injured Slushy. Slushy's attack wasn't on the news, what if she's attacked experiments as well? He leapt out of bed and raced off to Jumba's house.

As he approached the door, scanners shot from either side of it and analysed him. Seeing that he was not a threat, they allowed him to proceed. He raised a fist to knock, but it was opened by Jeeba, who explained that an alarm sounded when someone came towards the door. She was wearing a white apron, which seemed odd, even for her. Sure, she was a chef, but at 10:00 at night? She took him through to the lounge, and it all became clear. The coffee table and chairs had been removed, and instead the room was filled with small beds. In each of the beds lay a different experiment- the lounge had been converted into a miniature hospital. Jeeba was looking after them, with the aid of Pleakley. Reuben looked at all the cousins in horror.

Nibbiolo lay miserably in a bed that had the corners chewed off. One of his arms was missing. Squeak sat up in another, the covers swamping him. He mumbled to himself, although he didn't seem to be able to see anyone. He was shaking, and rocking back and forth in a very disturbed way. Sparky buzzed in the corner, sparks constantly flying off him. It seemed that A1 had covered him in water. Drowsy trembled, an ear missing and a huge slash on his stomach. Slushy was still curled in a corner, bandages round his throat. Pleakley bustled around in a nurse's costume, and Jeeba paused on the way to the kitchen to mop Squeak's head delicately. Reuben sat down next to Slushy, who seemed the most capable of conversation.

"Hi. How're you doing?"

"Not too bad. The kids have been looking after me." Slushy's voice rasped like nails on a blackboard. Evidently his vocal chords had yet to fully recover.

"The kids? What, Ruby and Keltzam?"

Right on cue, the twins rushed in, dressed in play dress-up doctor and nurse costumes. Keltzam had a stethoscope around his neck that seemed very realistic. It was evident that his dad had given him some equipment from the lab. They hurried over to examine their patient. Slushy grinned appreciatively at the pair as Keltzam made him say "Aaah", placed a thermometer in his mouth and checked his heart, warming up the stethoscope first, a tad unnecessarily as it froze on contact with his chest. Ruby stopped to explain to her Uncle Reuben. He had always been her favourite Uncle. Only he and her mother knew that she was named after him, not even she or her father knew that, but she had always seemed more attached to him than anyone else.

"Hiya, Uncle Reuben! I'm a nurse, like Uncle Pleakley!"

"Hey there, sweetie. Are you looking after Uncle Slushy?"

"Yeah! He's in a bad way, but in our care he'll soon be better."

Reuben grinned, and watched the kids playing grown-ups.

"Nurse Ruby," barked Keltzam, sounding spookily like his father, "I need the patient's pills, pronto."

"Here you go, Doctor Keltzam. These are the very ones that Surgeon Jumba prescribed this morning."

"Very good," Keltzam replied, grabbing the bag of M&Ms greedily and adding, in an undertone, "Did Dad, I mean, Surgeon Jumba prescribe any for me?"

"I don't know. I'll ask the specialist."

The two were using long words for six year olds, thought Reuben, but the again, with Jumba as a father, maybe it wasn't surprising. Ruby turned to him and asked.

"Mr. Reuben, please may the Doctor and Nurse have some medication as well?"

"Sure. Why not?"

The kids ate almost all of the candy, saving only a small amount for their 'patient'. When they had finished, Reuben ushered them out of the room to go to bed.

"After all, good doctors and nurses always make sure that they're rested up. And professionals always make sure to brush their teeth so's their mummy doesn't find out that their Uncle Reuben let them eat candy before bed."

Settling back down, Reuben looked around at all of the patients. Strange, he thought, how A1 has failed to kill any of them; just injured them. Or had she? He hurried off to find Jumba, and ask him. He found him, as usual, in the lab, researching A1 on the computer. Or, at least, trying to.

"Stupid piece of… must be something… about as much use as six-two-fi…"

"As much use as who?"

Jumba jumped, and turned in his swivel chair, looking faintly embarrassed.

"Oh, 625, I didn't hear you come in. Can you believe that there is nothing on internet about A1? Is worthless waste of time, humans are so primiti…"

"Has A1 killed any experiments?"

"No. But she has come very close to doing so. Is strange… she kills humans with no thought and yet, experiments… They are all saying she attacked them, but hesitated before killing them, giving them chance to fight back."

"Yeah. I had a little chat with her. I said something about no-one caring about her, and she went all weird…"

"Weird?"

"She screwed up her face; put her hand over her heart briefly. That kinda thing."

"Hmmm. Interesting…"

Jumba didn't elaborate, and Reuben knew better than to ask him to when he was in deep thought. The two sat in silence for five minutes before Reuben decided to break it.

"Jumba? Are you scared? About A1?"

Jumba looked away from him, suddenly very interested in a beetle that was making its way across the tiles.

"No," he said finally, "I am not scared. I am apprehensive… curious…jealous. But not scared. Why are you asking?"

"I am. She said she'd come after me, Jumba. That she'd kill me in my sleep. That she was going to kill my cousins, kill you, the kids and Jeeba."

Jumba looked up sharply at the name of his wife. But not because of the loving tone of Reuben's voice, in fact, because of the lack of it.

"625, you are just nervous. Nervous about loss. You haven't really experienced loss, 625…"

"Shut up. Stop calling me that. Why must everyone call me that?"

"What, 625? Why do you have aversion to experiment number?"

"It's just a number. Not a name. Having a name shows belonging, having a number shows belonging to someone else. I hate it."

"You haven't complained before."

"I tried to put up with it. And you called me Reuben once, remember?"

"No…"

"Why do you always call us by our experiment numbers? And Lilo 'little girl'? Didn't you have names for us in the lab?"

"I did have names for the first experiments I ever made. Before 001. Junior and Keltzam…"

"So Keltzam is named after…"

"Yeah. But I named the experiment after my father. There was an accident… they were both killed. Just hearing the names upset me; they were like children to me. So when I continued my experimenting, I gave numbers, not names, so as not to be getting emotionally attached to them."

"So why do you still call us that? We have names now."

"It didn't work. Your numbers have become names to me…"

And they sat in silence for another ten minutes before Reuben left the room.

A1 sat under the waterfall silently, listening to the constant music of the water crashing down around her. She was meditating, as the sound had cleared her mind. Meditating over what Reuben had said.

She had killed many people, in an attempt to remind herself of how powerful she was- how they should mean nothing to her, because she was their superior. But killing left her no pleasure and try as she might, she could not bring herself to actually kill another experiment. She remembered how she had hooked one of her curved claws under their throats, only to bring her shaking hand away and run off.

She had used to think only of the mission, only of what would bring her master one step closer to domination. But now she was thinking of what would happen after domination? Would she be needed? Would she be kept alive, or shut down? And more importantly, did her master care about her? Normally, she wouldn't have cared, and it had taken a lot to think about it when Reuben had suggested it. In fact, thinking about it had hurt. It had hurt her brain. As she tried to puzzle it all over, the same thing came rolling around her mind.

'_That_ name is from when I was nothing more than a number. You're still a number.'

She wanted to be a living being, not a number. She decided that she was going to have a little chat with Reuben. Thinking these thoughts of numbers and lives was not allowed, and her master would be disgusted at her if he knew about it. He might even shut her down. Then she wouldn't even be a number. Maybe getting rid of Reuben would get rid of the thoughts.

'That's stupid,' her brain replied to the meditative voice, 'Of course it won't.'

But another voice, from near her heart, replied back.

'What do you know? I need to get rid of these thoughts somehow. I'm losing my grip.'

She clambered out from behind the sheet of water and set off, arguing with her own brain. And the more it protested, the faster she ran, until she was a black streak headed for Reuben's ship faster than the eye could follow.

**I though I ought to show a little of Jumba's emotions and his family into the story here. Please review!**


	8. Chapter 7

Gantu's Interrogation

12:00, Midnight. A1 reached the ship and wrenched it open, sparks flying from the metal as her claws slid across it, trying to get a grip. She pulled away the metal, bolts flying off like exploding popcorn, and threw it to the ground. She climbed in and stormed through, calling softly.

Gantu woke up with a start. The sound of grating metal, popping bolts… suddenly the ship jerked, and he realised that something had pulled off one of the panels. He leapt out of bed and hurried to the control room window, but whatever it was had already climbed through the hole. Hearing footsteps, Gantu crouched under a table, cradling his plasma blaster and waiting to leap out on the intruder. Then a voice sounded out that made his skin crawl. It was a soft, sing-song voice that sounded as though it could belong to a young child, and yet it was terrifying, laced with the sound of death itself.

"Reu-ben," it called, dragging out each syllable eerily, "Reu-ben. I've come ba-ck. I've come for you."

The voice got louder and louder until it came to the door of the room Gantu was in. Then, suddenly, it stopped. Gantu held his breath, and his grip tightened on the blaster. The door opened slowly, and a sliver of light shone through. A monster shadow was cast on the wall, a silhouette so dark it looked like a black hole. A silhouette with pointed ears, six arms and a long, spiky tail that was curled upwards in a spiral around its owner's body past the top of its head, like a protective wall of barbed wire. Gantu tightened his grip again, and his knuckles turned white. The figure sniffed, and walked into the room, stopping in front of the table he was under. She couldn't see him, he was hidden. The metal of his blaster dug a welt into his fingers. He didn't speak.

"Surprise!"

She pushed the table away, revealing Gantu, crouching, curled up on the floor, wearing pyjamas, and briefly brushing his hand as she did so.

"Captain Gantu, I presume," she smirked, grinning as he flinched, "Now, Captain, would you mind telling me where Experiment 625, no, wait, Reuben, would be?"

Her voice was sarcastically polite. Gantu turned to look at her. A pair of red, arrow-shaped eyes shone out of the darkness at him, chilling him to the bone.

"I'm not saying anything," he grunted defiantly, "I'm not going to betray my best friend."

Annoyance flashed in her eyes, and she narrowed them angrily.

"Why must everyone make friends on this planet? They are so unreliable. They can betray each other so easily. Like you will with Reuben."

"What? Are you not listening? I'm not betraying Reuben, you little trog…"

"SILENCE!" she snapped, drawing a blaster from her belt. Gantu held up his shooting hand to find it…

"Empty?"

A1 span the weapon round her trigger finger, laughing at the bemused expression on his face.

"Fastest hands in the universe, Captain! If I can steal a plasma blaster from your grip, imagine how fast I can shoot you."

Gantu squirmed. How could he not have noticed that she had disarmed him when he had been gripping the gun so tightly? She put Bonnie and Clyde to shame.

"Shoot me if you want, I'll never tell you," he said. And then, "Can't you track him down anyway, if you're so great? Or is your 'sense of direction' playing up again?"

She glared at him.

"Oh, you'll tell me," she growled, "and not just where he's hiding. You're going to tell me how he intends to defeat me, and how I can defeat him and all of his cousins. You should be an expert on such things, Captain."

"Actually, I'm not the Captain any more, I was… No way! You can't make me tell you that!"

In a flash, she had pinned him down on the table top, the gun under his throat.

"Tell me. Or I'll blast you to kingdom come."

Gantu blinked.

"Come on, then, shoot me. I'll never tell, so shoot me."

A1 scratched her head thoughtfully with the blaster.

"I'm not shooting you, idiot! I'm gonna have to resort to torture then. Slow, painful torture. And I'm showing no mercy. I never show mercy."

She retracted one of her curved, razor sharp claws, chuckling manically to herself as she dug it into his stomach. He groaned, tears in his eyes as white-hot pain shot through his body.

"You're…sick…" he muttered, his throat closing up in agony. She just smirked and pulled the claw across, laying open a huge, clean cut on his stomach. It was precise, surgical torture, but as blood spattered her midnight fur, her eyes opened wide. She was actually beginning to feel slightly sick, and yet she couldn't stop. Her programming wouldn't let her. The gasps, moans and shuddering sobs coming from her victim revolted her, and yet she couldn't shut them out. She dug the claw in deeper, watching him shake in agony.

The pain was so intense that Gantu's vision started to blur. White spots popped in front of his vision, and he couldn't breathe. He looked at his torturer in confusion. She was laughing crazily, and crying uncontrollably. What the heck was going on? He felt the contents of his stomach begin to leak through as she punctured the wall, and the acid spilt onto his wounds.

"I'LL TELL YOU!" he screamed, "I'LL TELL YOU ANYTHING!"

She wrenched her hand out, shaking and sobbing.

"He's… he's at Jumba's house…" he said weakly, and then his voice broke, leaving him mouthing desperately at her. He stared at her as tears kept on falling down her face, as she took in shuddery breaths, as she started to scratch and rip at her own face in desperation.

"I… am so, so sorry," she wailed, "…so, so, so, so sorry."

"I know," he muttered, before blacking out.

A1 stared at him, horrified at what she had done. He lay on the floor, blood pooling on the floor next to him. With a trembling hand, she placed his plasma blaster next to him. Then she headed for Jumba's house, with a brand new thought in her head. What she was doing was wrong. This simple thought terrified her more than anything that had happened so far. She was thinking against her programming. She was defying her creator. She needed help. The door to Jookiba's house glowed in the distance, and Reuben's voice called to her. Reuben, who knew about numbers. Reuben, who knew about lives, and of love. He was the only one who could help her now. Scanners shot out of the door, and alarms shrieked and wailed inside the house. Jumba Jookiba wrenched open the door, pointing a plasma bazooka straight in her face. Then he blinked. A dishevelled, crying wreck stood before him, blood dripping from one of her hands, and acid dripping from gashes on her face.

"I need to talk to Reuben," she said.

Reuben sat on a couch, trying to take in what A1 was saying. Jumba sat behind her, the gun on her at all times.

"So you're saying that you're thinking outside your programming, and it hurts?"

"It hurts so much… I'm trying to do what I was made for, and yet, I don't want to. I really don't want to. But every time I think like that, my brain hurts. Why? Why does this happen?"

Jumba cleared his throat.

"Is simple. Thinking new thoughts means feeling new emotions. New emotions means new hormones. Making new hormones that aren't meant to be there will obviously be hurting."

She nodded, a look of comprehension on her tearstained face.

"New emotions like… when you see someone in pain, and you don't want them to be in pain?"

"Pity," said Reuben.

"And when you know you're causing pain, and you feel bad about it?"

"Guilt."

"But what about when you see someone in pain, you know you're causing the pain, you want it to stop, and yet you can't? When you laugh at their pain, but cry at the same time? When all you want in the world is for your master to rule it, but at the same time you want to stop torturing someone because it's making you feel sick?"

Jumba nodded.

"Ah. Mental instability from going against programming. Will probably wear off after a while…"

"Who were you torturing, A1?" Reuben cut in quietly.

"Nobody in particular," she muttered in a small voice, and a disturbing grin formed on her face. "I have to be going. I have people to kill… no. I have… aaargh!" she screamed, running from the house angrily.

Jumba and Reuben exchanged a look.

"How did she know I was here anyway?" Reuben said.

"She could have tortured…"

They gasped.

"I gotta get back to the ship!" shouted Reuben. Jumba passed him a communicator.

"In case of emergency…" he explained.

Reuben sprinted to the ship, swearing angrily at the hole in the wall. Jumba listened on the other line, with Jeeba, Lilo and Stitch with him. He ran through the rooms, shouting.

"GANTU! GANTU, WHERE THE HELL ARE YOU?"

The he came to the control room. Everyone leant back from the speakers at the sharp intake of breath, sounding like a rush of static.

"Sweet mother of crap…"

The line went dead.

**I bet I'm leaving you on tenterhooks! I'll update soon. In the meantime, please review.**


	9. Chapter 8

Thanks For The Memories

Reuben didn't care what the time was any more. It had seemed to stop the second he had looked into the control room, and things had been such a blur since then that time had lost all meaning, all significance. All he knew was that Gantu had been lying, out cold, on the floor in a puddle of blood and with his stomach ripped open. A1 had been sitting next to him, crying silently. When he had walked in, he had pressed the off-button on his communicator in shock, and A1 had looked up.

"I just want it to end," she had said softly, and he couldn't help but feel sorry for her. But then he had caught sight of what she had done to Gantu and had nearly had a heart-attack. He was going to kill her. The evil little… there were no words nasty enough to describe her. Now she was running and he was following. The fact that Jumba was tending to Gantu gave him no comfort. He wanted to rip her limb from limb.

There was no air in his lungs, no blood in his veins, no thoughts in his head. All he was aware of was the incredible pain that she had put him through, and that he was gaining on her. She had run into a church. God would do nothing to save her now, nothing would. It took him a while to get to the doors, and when he opened them, he wished he hadn't. It was totally silent. He looked around, and saw water dripping from the font, footsteps dragged across the cold stone floor. Crouching behind a pew, he looked around. Then a funeral march struck up on the battered old organ at the other side of the church, making him jump. He heard disturbing laughter. He heard the scratch of her long claws on the stone. He grabbed his blaster, pumped it's handle twice for extra power and rolled out, army-style from his hiding place, shooting into the air.

A1 had run to the church and leapt into the font, scrubbing angrily at her face, at her body as if the holy water would cleanse her of her terrible sins. She had heard Reuben approaching and dragged herself away to the organ, playing the funeral march and laughing. This had become a kind of warped game to her, to see how long she could last without going insane. Maybe she already had. Then Reuben had leapt out and shot at her. As a few of the blasts grazed her, bouncing off her toughened hide she retreated to the far side of the church.

Reuben called snidely after her.

"What's wrong, A1? _Number Girl?_ Too scared to disembowel me like you did Gantu? Or can't you see me? Is your eye still sore, baby?"

"Oh, I can see you, you little squirt. I can see you," she hissed, scurrying up the wall to the ceiling above him, "And you know what I see? I just see another number, _625_." She dropped straight onto him and scratched and slashed, opening his skin like a paper envelope. She forced him onto his back and sat on his chest, slowly crushing the breath out of his lungs. But there was only sadness in her large red eyes, a film of tears covering them.

"This is all your fault, Reuben," she explained sadly, "It's your fault I keep thinking like this." And then she was shouting, screaming angrily, "IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

She punched him straight on the nose, but he said nothing as blood started to ooze from in. She sunk a punch between his eyes, and then started slashing swiftly.

She paused; sweat trickling into her eyes and mingling with tears. Despite the blood flowing into his own eyes, Reuben could see that under her wiry black fur, her face was tinged with a sickly pallor.

"Well? WELL?" she demanded, "Aren't you going to fight back?"

Reuben glared up angrily at the one that had almost killed his best friend, threatened Jeeba and hurt all of his cousins, and spat in her face.

As she rubbed the saliva furiously from her face, Reuben had already slipped out of her grip and behind the organ. He needed to get away. He needed a plan of attack, not just running in blindly. He heard a roar of pure rage, and sprinted out. She immediately shot at him with the blaster, but missed. Being the best shot there was, however, it was probably on purpose. She chased him from the church, shooting blasts all around him. Reuben ran, his arms flailing wildly, looking like a lizard sprinting across a lake's surface. People on the street turned around in alarm, and dived out of the way, but A1 only chased him half way down before stopping dead in her tracks. Reuben slipped away, but she didn't care. She was entranced by some music blasting out of a nearby car stereo.

"I remember when, I remember, I remember when I lost my mind  
There was something so pleasant about that phase.  
Even your emotions had an echo  
In so much space

And when you're out there  
Without care,  
Yeah, I was out of touch  
But it wasn't because I didn't know enough  
I just knew too much.

Does that make me crazy...?"

She sank a plasma blast into the stereo and walked slowly back into the church. Having heard her thoughts played back to her through song, she didn't feel like running. She could only pray for forgiveness now. She sank down by the altar, her eyes squeezed shut, listening to her own heartbeat throbbing around her head. She shuddered as pain shot through her body yet again. More hormones, according to Jumba. More of those damned hormones. She blinked away the pain, and started mumbling.

"I'm sorry. Sorry for everything, master. I didn't mean to ruin the mission. There's a… a programme flaw. I'd be better off… shut…shutting down."

Tears rolled down her cheeks as she waited for a reply from above, as if she would hear her master, her beloved creator's voice sound in her head. Then her communicator buzzed, and she remembered that the line had been open since she had arrived on Earth.

"What kind of flaw?"

Reuben burst into the control room, making Jeeba scream and everyone else jump into the air. Jumba was typing furiously at a laptop computer, and Jeeba was tending to Gantu. Lilo and Stitch seemed to be looking after the twins, and Pleakley's main function appeared to be infuriating Jumba. Jumba swivelled round in his chair and examined the deep scratches on Reuben's face.

"Hmmm… well, nothing is broken… but is very close. What happened?"

But rather than explain everything to them, Reuben simply asked one question in return.

"How do I beat her?"

"What?"

"I need to know what her weak spot is. What is the one thing that will reduce her to nothing?"

Jumba looked at him almost scornfully.

"Is it not obvious? It is hormones, 625, hormones. If you can induce a release of hormones in her head that is strong enough, she will be powerless. Is painful to her, and too much will send her into an overload."

Reuben screwed up his face impatiently.

"What can force a release of hormones that strong? What is the most powerful hormone?"

Jumba looked thoughtful for a moment, but Jeeba cut in before he could answer.

"Endorphins."

Everyone looked around, and Jumba beamed at his wife for saying the very answer he had been about to supply. She continued with a small smile.

"We Cupidians know a lot about endorphins. After the accident with the poisons in the Earth/Cupidian battle, we researched endorphins and what causes them in detail, so as not to make the same mistake again. We have discovered that female Cupidians have glands behind their ears that secrete almost pure endorphins, which attract any males in the vicinity. We have discovered that endorphins are the most powerful hormones in any species- they make you act irrationally, want to hurt people, and want to do things that you can't explain. They can wreck people from inside out, and can be triggered by many things. Music, chocolate, some flowers… If you want to defeat A1, Reuben, you're going to have to make her fall in love."

This was a long speech from Jeeba, and the last sentence echoed around the control room. Gantu groaned, and Reuben sighed, exasperated.

"Jeeba, this is A1. She can't feel love."

"She couldn't feel a lot of things before she talked to you, Reuben," piped up Lilo, and Stitch nodded in agreement.

"But love can't be rushed! I can't just snap my fingers and make her fall in love!"

"Oh, can't you?" Jeeba murmured softly, looking into Reuben's eyes meaningfully. A look of dawning realisation spread across his face, and he turned to leave. Jumba called him back.

"625! Where are you going? What are you going to do?"

"Jeeba once said that it only took one kiss to make her fall in love with me," he said grimly. Jumba bristled angrily, and he gave him a small, apologetic smile before slipping out of the door. Jumba rounded on his wife, looking into her flushed face to see if it was true. Then he stopped in his tracks.

"Wait a minute… Is he going to try to…?"

They all leapt up as one and sprinted towards the door, including Gantu. Only Jeeba lingered behind for a moment, wondering if she had done the right thing. 'It's a bit late for this,' she told herself, setting off as well into the black air of the night.

A1 stood on the altar, looking into the eyes of a dying, crucified Christ. Soon, she too would meet her maker. Because her master was coming for her, to shut her down for good. Of course, he could simply shut her down from the lab, but he wanted to do it personally. She turned her head slightly at the sound of the door opening behind her. It wouldn't be her master, not yet; he had only just set off. Seeing Reuben standing there brought the bitter taste of hatred into her throat.

"I'm dying, 625," she shouted, a thousand voices echoing furiously around the empty church, "I'm being shut down. My master is coming for me. And it's your fault. Why did you have to do this to me? I was only trying to do what I… STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

Reuben stopped in his tracks. He had been walking up to her, scared of what would come. But now he realised something. A1 was actually terrified of him. Her voice quavered, her eyes flashed with fear, and she was edging across the altar to get away from him. And there was pain in her eyes, from the hormones that fear brought. He was half-way there into his hormone-overload plan.

"I only want to help you, A…"

"NO-ONE CAN HELP ME," she shrieked hysterically, "ONLY MY MASTER CAN HELP ME! HE'S SHUTTING ME DOWN AND IT'S YOUR…"

"My fault. I know. Look, I can help you, if you just stop edging away."

He had come to her side on the altar, standing in front of her, eye to eye. Her blind eye was healing up slowly, but the tears that flowed from it were bloody and acidic. He held out his hand, and she took it with a shaking paw. Reuben took a couple of steps in, and she blinked her sad eyes at him. He watched another tear roll from the corner of her eye. Their noses were brushing...

Jumba smashed open the church door, and the breathless group burst in, falling silent immediately at the scene before them. Reuben and A1 stood on the altar, locked at the mouth in a passionate kiss. A1's eyes widened. Her whole body was shaking violently, somehow simultaneously in intense pain and incredible pleasure. But pain took over, and as she reached for the gun at her belt, time slowed down. Lilo, Jeeba and Pleakley all screamed at the same time as the plasma blast shot out, and Reuben lay, spread-eagled on the cold stone slabs. As A1 ran from the back door of the church, her strangled sobs echoed across the room, each one chilling everyone to the core.

**The suspense is killing me too! If you want to see what happens, you're going to have to review. That means everyone, please! Thanks for sticking with it so far! **


	10. Chapter 9

Belonging

Reuben staggered slowly to his feet, looking around with blurry eyes. He could see familiar faces, but he couldn't focus on who they were. Then one of them spoke, in a voice that reminded him of love and comfort.

"Reuben…? Are you…"

He stumbled towards the sound, his eyes slowly adjusting to reveal Jeeba, her usually bright pink face white and tearstained, and her four black eyes glistening with fear. He reached out for her, tripping as he tried to take a step, and she caught him. He fell heavily against her chest, clinging to her like a newborn in her trembling embrace.

"625!"

Another voice. He turned to see his creator, Jumba Jookiba, and remembered that he was no longer allowed to love Jeeba. He stepped shakily away and stood, quaking, in the middle of the group, like an exhibition at a zoo. Except he was in a church. A church… and there was something he was meant to be doing. Another experiment…

Jumba spoke again, his voice riddled with concern.

"625! Are you ok? You have been out cold for twenty minutes now, is long time to be unconscious…"

"What happened?"

"A1 blasted you in the leg, close range. Is not pretty, you won't be running marathon on it, is for sure."

He glanced down at his leg, and his stomach churned. Burnt flesh oozed blood onto singed fur, and as he focussed on it, pain started to throb maliciously through him. All A1's doing.

"A1! Where is she?" Suddenly it all came flooding back, like a bad dream. He had been out for twenty minutes, A1 had gone… She had said something about being shut down, about her master. She might already be dead. The thought, for reasons that he couldn't quite fathom, appalled him. She was like him. Alone. And he felt responsible for her, he felt as though she needed him, and, on some level that he needed her. Yes, she had killed, tortured, terrified, and yet… He wondered if that kiss had released hormones of his own.

Jeeba looked at him worriedly.

"She went out the back entrance. Stitch followed her for a while, she went to the waterfall. She was shouting about her master, and being shut down," she said, and her eyes lit up at the last sentence, "So she won't be bothering us any more."

"No!"

Everyone stared at him, Jeeba with a horrified look on her face.

"What do you mean," Gantu asked, wincing as he moved his heavily bandaged stomach, "Why is that bad?"  
"A1's bad. She's a murderer, a torturer. But, isn't that just what we were all meant to be? Me, and Stitch, and all the cousins? She just needs to be converted. Anyone can be converted. She needs a name, she needs to belong," he said, emotionally, adding the last part in a low mutter, "Maybe she belongs with me."

Jeeba blinked.

"How can you talk about a war machine like that? They can't be converted! They can't love! A1 is a despicable, mindless animal that only knows evil."

A lump rose in Reuben's throat, forcing his voice to a shout.

"She knows love! You said so yourself! Sort of… She's just still fighting her programming. She deserves a second chance, that's all. You'd give all of us a second chance, right? So none of us actually did what we were supposed to do. She did, and suddenly she's the bad guy! She feels bad; she's going to die…"

"But none of you guys killed anyone! She did! Look at what she did to your best friend! How can you say that anyone capable of doing that belongs with you? How can you like someone that?"

"You do know that your husband created 626 experiments, plus a few more, in order to do just what A1 did? That I was created as a war machine? That A1 is exactly what he wanted to create?"

A look of horror passed across Jeeba's face. She turned to Jumba slowly, and Reuben wished he hadn't said anything. Jumba looked mortified, biting his lip anxiously as his wife surveyed him.

"You said you just wanted a family," she whispered.

"I did. Among other things... I created them for companions, but it led to… other things. Other desires. Greed," he mumbled in a cracked voice, the words hanging heavily in the air. Silence fell, and for a few moments Reuben embraced it so that he could think. He needed to find A1, not stand here watching everyone duke out their innermost feelings. Then, Jumba muttered something and Jeeba gave him another look of horror and a venomous answer. Gantu spoke to Reuben.

"Reuben, I saw her. She's crazy. She… and… look. If you want to save her, that's your decision. She nearly killed me, like all those other people. If you think she can be converted, that's your call. But you need to get moving if you want to find her before her master does."

Reuben nodded and limped from the church, pain shooting up his leg and blood dripping to the floor like a snail's slime trail, ignoring the argument that was now blazing above his head. Only Gantu noticed him leave, and then he returned to his own thoughts. Ignoring the pain. Could he understand Reuben wanting to save his attacker? Maybe. Could he forgive A1? Maybe. She had seemed so unstable… maybe not even aware of what she was doing at first, then crying and screaming an apology… Would she screaming the same apology to Reuben?

A1 stood in her master's shadow in the cave under the waterfall, cowed in his presence. He towered almost three centimetres above her. Not much, and yet, she seemed so small in his presence, like Bonnie with Clyde. He growled at her, muttering darkly in Tantalog. She responded dimly, and shuddered. Their conversation had barely been taking place for three minutes and she was already terrified. A new emotion, of course. He repeated the same thing yet again.

"So. This _Reuben_ said something and suddenly your programming went kaput? Was it a certain word, or a random sentence that could be a detonator code? Like, for instance, a line from a song?"

"No, master. It was a thought. He told me to think… something. And each time I thought it, my head hurt and I became weaker. And now I'm a threat to the mission, and I should be shut down."

"What thought?"

A1's eyes flashed up briefly. Her master didn't even notice. She simply saw Reuben in the cave entrance with a look of shock and confusion on his face. She looked guiltily at his leg, thinking it was a wonder he made it here at all. And why was he here anyway?

"Erm… Should I think it if it makes me weak?"

Reuben understood. She was stalling, to find out what he wanted. He mouthed at her four words that, though she could not hear them, echoed in her mind. 'I'm here to help'. She needed help. At the time she had thought of being shut down as the right thing, but Reuben wanted to help her. She wasn't alone, he would look after her. She thought of the kiss, the incredible experience that her computer told her was an expression of intimacy and love. Love. The one thing that she thought she could never experience. Did he love her? She had threatened his previous lover, almost destroyed his best friend and nearly killed a lot of his cousins. But he had come to help her. Then her master spoke.

"Are you listening to me? I said 'Why does it matter if it weakens you if you're being shut down soon anyway?'."

"Erm… it's made me… unstable. And I could attack you."

"Impossible. I programmed you so that you cannot attack, deceive or plot against me."

A1 glanced again at Reuben, who was looking at her master with unsuppressed curiosity. As though he had seen him before. He mouthed at her again.

'Do you want to be free?'

Did she? Freedom. What a thought. A banned thought. A heretical thought. What would it be like to be free? She nodded fractionally, barely moving her head. Reuben understood though.

'Distract him. I'm going for help.'

She bit her lip, and tried to think of a method of distraction. It was all too obvious what to do. She would simply mimic Reuben in doing the most distracting thing that she had experienced in her time on Earth. Searching her brain, she discovered that her new-found hormones gave her other abilities as well. The ability to deceive her master. Interesting. She moved forwards towards her master, and looked him in the eyes, a half-smile playing on her lips.

"Master, this experiment. He showed me something that I'd never heard of back in the labs."

"Oh really," he replied, an eyebrow raised superiorly. She moved slightly closer and cocked her head to one side coquettishly.

"Yes. I wonder if you could explain it to me."

Reuben burst back into the church and then sighed. The argument was still raging on, and nobody had even noticed his return. He watched as Jeeba sent a particularly painful comment across at Jumba, and squirmed inwardly at the look on his face. He realised, with a guilty feeling, that he may have just ruined his creator's marriage. But there was a more important issue to be addressed here. He cleared his throat and silence fell once more in the dusty church.

"A1's master is here. Right now. We need to stop him."

Confusion muddled its way onto everyone's faces. Except Gantu's.

"How do you know, 625? Are you possessing psychic powers or something?" Jumba asked grumpily.

"No. I've been gone for the last 20 minutes, Jumba, please try to keep up," Reuben replied with exaggerated patience, "Maybe if you could stop arguing about something in the past that has little relevance to A1's life we might be able to get somewhere."

Jeeba, Jumba and Pleakley glanced at each other uncomfortably, and Jeeba looked slightly embarrassed. Reuben cleared his throat and continued.

"Now. We should be able to shut him down pretty easily, but I need all of you to help me."

"How do we stop him?" Stitch asked throatily, his voice as scratchy as Slushy's.

"Whoa, cuz, what happened to your voice?"

"He shouted so loudly at Jeeba that his voice broke," Lilo said, as Stitch seemed unable to talk for very long, "Because she said that if Jumba was trustworthy, then why did he create an experiment that could turn the others from good to bad, and he doesn't like people insulting Angel."

"Oh," said Reuben downheartedly, "I kinda needed your voice, cuz."

"Will you please be explaining what we are doing!" said Jumba, hating not knowing what was going on even for just a few seconds. Reuben obliged.

"Well. A1's master is… Leroy."

A1 grinned as Leroy closed his eyes subconsciously. She was tricking her master. Whilst doing it stung a guilty pain in the back of her mind, she still felt it was the right thing to do. She ran her claws through his red fur and leant in, trying to do what Reuben had done, and kissing him gently at first. Then she kissed him harder, and grinned in her head. He was distracted. Now all she had to do was keep him distracted until Reuben came back.

"_Leroy?!?_" repeated Jumba for the umpteenth time, "Leroy would not be able to be creating experiment… I am giving him intelligence, but not this much…" he muttered. Reuben understood. Jumba had always been full of creative jealousy of A1, and if she had been created by a fellow scientist, it would be bad. To find out that she had been created by one of his creations was quite possibly too much to take.

"Leroy might not be her creator, you know," Reuben said placating, "But he is her master, and he has the power to shut her down. So we need to stop him."

"So we need to perform 'Aloha Oe' again?" asked Lilo enthusiastically.

"Pretty much. So, let's see. I'll grab the sax, Stitch, get a guitar, Lilo grab your Ukulele, and Jumba, you can dig out that keyboard that I happen to know you can play quite nicely."

Jumba blushed. He hadn't realised that people actually knew about that. He often played the keyboard that was up in his loft when he wanted to get away from it all. He would have to check out the sound-proofing in his home when he next got a chance.

"Now. Stitch can't sing. So, Lilo?"

"No. I don't wanna sing on my own!"

With a sigh, Reuben turned to Jumba, who simply raised an eyebrow in response.

"Good point," he smirked, and turned to Jeeba with a quizzical look on his face.

"Jeeba, would you do the honours? You know I can't sing to save my life. Would you sing to save A1's?"

Jeeba twitched slightly, and Reuben sighed. He knew why Jeeba detested A1- she had threatened to kill Ruby and Keltzam. A mother's wrath. Possibly the most deadly. But Jeeba was compassionate, and Reuben knew that if he stressed the point, she wouldn't be able to allow even A1 to die.

"All right. OK, guys, no show today," he said to Ruby and Keltzam, "Let's get going."

"Why are we going, Uncle Reuben?" asked Ruby. With a sly grin, Reuben turned to Jeeba and answered.

"Because your mummy doesn't want to save A1. She's not going to sing for thirty seconds to save somebody's life. And this is a big lesson in life, kids," he added, seriously, "Take your mummy's example and be vindictive. If you see someone you don't like in danger, don't do anything. In fact, why not go the whole hog and do whatever you can to cause them even more pain…"

"NO! Don't listen to your Uncle, kids, he's joking. Fine, fine, I'll sing. But don't expect me to sing well."  
"C'mon, Jeebs, who're you kidding?" laughed Reuben, "Everyone knows you have the most beautiful voice on this island."

"How do you know?"  
"When you used to love, I mean, live with me and Gantu, we used to be able to hear you singing in the shower," he laughed, and Gantu nodded enthusiastically. Jumba smiled in agreement and said that he woke up to the very same beautiful sound almost every day. Jeeba blushed a brilliant purple, her argument with her husband forgotten, and cleared her throat. They all set off as fast as possible to fetch their equipment, meeting up again at the church. Jumba was carrying a keyboard, and very soon all of the other instruments as well. They hurried up to the waterfall as quietly as they could, deciding to surprise Leroy.

A1 seemed to have been kissing her master for an age, and yet he showed no sign of wanting to break away. Was he also being held captive by these mysterious hormones? Either way, she felt strange. Because when she had kissed Reuben, her heart had sped up and she had felt light, otherworldly, as though she was floating, even though she was in pain. She felt nothing now. Did it depend on the person you were kissing? He was kissing her quite roughly now, and had forced her to the ground, although he still hadn't opened his eyes, as though he wasn't in control. Like when she had tortured Gantu. When would Reuben be coming back? A terrible thought struck her. What if Reuben had simply given her false hope, and left her? Left her to die? Her heart plummeted, and she wondered if she should break away. Suddenly, as though he was way ahead of her, her master's eyes snapped open and he sprang from her embrace, standing in the middle of the cave in a pouncing position. A spark buzzed on his chest for a minute, and he slapped it impatiently. That was when she heard it.

The sound of music flowing through the crashing wall of water and into her ears. Both of the super-experiments ran to the mouth of the cave and looked through. Leroy gasped in horror, and A1 smiled, looking down at her own private concert. Jumba played a catchy hook on his keyboard, and Lilo echoed it on her Ukulele. In the meantime, Reuben and Stitch duked it out, the rugged electric guitar over the brassy tones of the saxophone. The opening sequence made more of the sparks buzz on her master, and this time slapping them didn't get rid of them. Then Jeeba opened her mouth to sing. As soon as the first notes escaped her lips A1 knew that her master was doomed. Jeeba had a voice like no other, a sweet, clear chime that had many harmonious layers, as though many people were singing at once. A choir of angels. The voice of a Cupidian.

_Aloha Oe, Aloha Oe,_

_E Ke onaona noho i ka lipo,_

_One fond embrace, a hoi ae au_

_Until we meet again._

The Hawaiian and English words flowed, seemingly not from her mouth, but from her very heart, and Leroy collapsed to the floor, writhing, sparks flying around him, buzzing like a swarm of electrical bees. Despite the serious beauty of the situation, A1 had to laugh. She had just caught sight of Ruby and Keltzam standing next to Reuben, mimicking his every move, and playing along on kazoos. How could she have ever tried to hurt them? The song went on, and whilst her master continued to writhe and spark, he didn't shut down. The musicians seemed to be getting tired, and Jeeba's voice was starting to waver. Jumba shouted above the song to A1.

"Is not loud enough to do permanent damage!"

She wondered what to do. Should she move him down to them? She placed her hand on his chest. And an errant spark stung her, leaving an angry red mark. She jumped away reflexively and pondered. He was powerless, but still alive. She couldn't touch him without conducting the sparks herself, possibly shutting herself down in the process. It seemed that there was only one thing to do. She walked up to her master and cleared her throat, starting to sing. Reuben stopped playing to listen to her, and he wasn't the only one. Everyone stopped playing, and A1's voice rang out clearly, carrying out over the crashing waterfall. A rich, deep voice that trembled as for the first time in her life she sang. Singing was such a wonderful feeling, putting her feelings into her voice for everyone to hear. She wondered why she had never sung before. Maybe she hadn't been able to.

Reuben started to play again, the only one, the saxophone spurring her on. Sparks from Leroy flew into the waterfall, lighting the whole wall of water up like a flowing fireworks display, and as Reuben played the final note, A1 pulled out her blaster, closed her eyes and sank the blast into her master's chest. It rippled along the sparks, a plasma charge swirling round his body in the same way that her tail surrounded hers. He flew backwards, over the edge, and dashed on the rocks below as the electrically charged water smashed into his blank face.

A1 pulled her arms above her head and dived from the top of the waterfall, streamlining her body like a javelin. Horrified silence fell among the band, unable to believe that the one that they had just saved had more or less committed suicide. She cut through the surface like a hot knife through butter. The water didn't ripple, as though she hadn't touched it. A minute passed, in which nobody dared to breathe, and then she broke the surface, shooting out like a dolphin, splashing in the cool, pure water. She swam to the edge and climbed out, shaking the water from her fur like a dog, then running to Reuben and hugging him. She was laughing, and this time it was no longer the high-pitched, mirthless laughter it had once been. It was a laugh that showed freedom, happiness and, if it was possible, love. Ignoring the look from Jeeba, Reuben hugged her back, smiling. Somehow, he knew that A1 wasn't dangerous anymore. She wasn't taking orders from Leroy and her programming anymore. She was taking her own orders now. She tried to pull his face towards hers, but he held back. He glanced at Gantu, who had been sitting and watching the proceedings, unable to help out. Because of A1. Gantu nodded slightly, and Reuben kissed her cheek, before going to help Jumba place Leroy into a container. Not that he'd be going anywhere. Jeeba surveyed A1, who was standing still with a hand over the place where Reuben had kissed her. She seemed so innocent now. Now that she was free. Could she forgive and forget, the way that Gantu had? She had only been acting on her programming. But, looking at Ruby and Keltzam and thinking of how she had nearly lost them, it was clear that she could never completely forgive her.

Back at Jumba's house, A1 was undergoing a series of tests. Jumba had already admired all of her powers, and now he was looking into how much of her programming still remained.

"Hmmm. Is interesting…"

"What?" she asked, anxiously.

"It seems there is a loophole in your programming, A1. Whilst it is almost completely gone, a small amount of it still remains. 625 and Little Girl will do their best, but it is looking like you will never be completely good. Possibly 98 good at most."

A1's heart sank. 98 was good, but who knows what that 2 could allow her to do. Jumba grinned at her, as though he could read her mind.

"Is OK, A1. The 2 is not anything life-threatening. You will probably be a little more mischievous than your cousins, is all."

"My… cousins?"

"Of course. You are one of us now."

"Which means that you need a name," said Reuben, making the two in the lab turn round. It seemed he had been watching silently from the doorway the whole time.

"A name?"

"Yeah. You're not being programmed now. So you're not a number anymore."

A1 didn't think she could smile wider if she'd tried.

"How 'bout… Midnight? Because you have midnight fur?"

A1 shook her head. The whole family were trying to name her, but she hadn't liked anything that they had suggested so far."

"Erm… Mischief?" suggested Lilo.

A1 snorted.

"What kind of a name is that?"

"Lilo loves to come up with stupid names," Reuben grinned, "She wanted to call me Pita Pita Sandwich Eater."

"That name would've suited you," laughed Jeeba, and A1 smirked in agreement.

"Look, guys, my name needs to start with an 'A'. I don't think it would be right to start it with anything else.

"What did the 'A' stand for anyway?"

"Alpha. There were different groups, Alpha was the most powerful. The number was the importance of the experiment, which would be picked first for missions. A2 was so annoyed that he'd been beaten by a female in all the tests," she said with a smug grin, before quickly adding, "But that was then. This is now, and I need a name."

Reuben racked his brains. Somewhere there would be the perfect name for A1, they just needed to find it.

"How about 'Attila'? Tilly for short?" suggested Jumba, to a small grin from Gantu and a growl from A1.

"I am _not_ going to be known as _Tilly_," she spat.

"What about Artemis? The goddess of the moon?"

"Hmmm… a goddess? An important name would be nice. But not Artemis."

"Aphrodite?" said Reuben.

"What's she the goddess of?"

"Love and Beauty," laughed Lilo, and A1 shook her head, blushing under her fur.

"Do you want an unusual name?" asked Gantu, "One that's original?"

"Yes. I don't want to be the same as anyone else."

"Aoide? It means 'to sing'. That's how you were freed."

"Nope. Too original."

"Aradia," said Jeeba quietly. A1 looked up.

"I like it. What does it mean?"

"I forget. But it's the name of an Italian goddess."

A1 smiled.

"Aradia it is, then."

Reuben beamed. It was perfect. Aradia. A beautiful name for a beautiful experiment.

'Shut up,' he mumbled to himself, 'Anyone would think that you were in love with her'.

'That's because you are,' his brain replied.

"Talking to yourself, Reuben?" asked Aradia, "I do that a lot."

His heart skipped a beat.

"Would you like to come live with us?" he asked, without thinking. Gantu flinched slightly, but said nothing.

"Of course," she replied, "I'll help you patch up that hole in the wall."

She was floating again. Like she was when he had kissed her. But she wasn't in pain anymore. Her brain and her heart were no longer at odds. She was at peace with herself.

'So this is belonging,' she thought to herself as they walked off to the ship, and she knew it was.

Meanwhile, Jumba was looking at a webpage on the internet with an odd expression on his face. The title on the page read "2000 Goddess names", and he had just found what he was looking for.

'Aradia,' the page read, 'The Italian for 'Queen of the witches''.

Another read, 'Aradia, Greek for Goddess and teacher of witches.''

There was even a book called 'Aradia, the gospel of the witches'.

Reuben was right, the name suited A1. Did his wife know what it meant? If so, it was a cruel and beautiful name. She had been a cruel and beautiful experiment. Maybe the meaning suited her as well.

Back at the ship, Reuben was beginning to teach Aradia her lessons on being good, but what remained of her programming seemed to be getting in the way. And for a hyper-intelligent experiment, she sure had a short attention span. She kept gazing into his eyes. But he couldn't stop himself gazing into hers. The few hours she had been on the ship had taught him a lot about his new roommate. She adored singing, she adored TV. But most of all, she adored sandwiches. Possibly almost as much as he did. As they were the first Earth food she had eaten, she seemed to have an affinity for them. Maybe they did belong together.

**There. The final chapter. But it isn't over. I'm planning on writing another story about Aradia after she discovers what belonging is. Now, you must review. Please. Thanks for sticking this out to the end!**


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